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Talk:Dyson Sphere Construction/@comment-36503198-20180901185910/@comment-24729606-20190324215622
while I do not entirely disagree I would just like to point one IMMENSE problem, that being the dyson sphere itself. The idea behind it (and one that I think was well illustrated by an episode of Star Trek Next Generation entitled Relics wherein a dyson sphere featured) is to construct an IMMENSE roughly spherical satellite around a star and thus be able to take advantage of as near as 100% of its energy output as possible and also of allowing any civilization advanced enough to attempt and accomplish such a feat to inhabit the interior of said sphere. But just to construct such a gargantuan structure would require the resources of entire star systems, its expense essentially being inestimable, and the length of time required to plan and construct such a monstrous structure would most likely be at least in the tens of thousands of years to say nothing of the amount of labor such an undertaking would require. such an undertaking would easily require more manpower than all the human and prehuman species ever produced. All this being said let’s say for arguments sake that such a structure was built then yes with such a near boundless and self-contained energy source a civilization so advanced could produce technology that modern humans would have little if any recourse other than to call magic. But there is one other problem that is perhaps even more troubling than the difficulties of constructing a dyson sphere and that is what the fate of its inhabitants will be once the star said sphere was constructed around reaches the end of its life. depending on the size and type of star this might not occur for anywhere from billions to trillions of years but once it does the inhabitants of star would face many different possible futures. for example if the star goes supernova than the inhabitants (assuming they had ample enough warning) could evacuate the sphere and find new homes for themselves. if they did not have enough warning the loss of life would be all but incalculable. If the star collapsed into a white dwarf the sphere might still be habitable but the civilization would be facing an immeasurably reduced central energy source. if the star collapsed further down to a neutron star (or for that matter any of the subtypes thereof) much the same would be true but at an even graver level. Finally if the star collapsed all the way to a Black Hole than the inhabitants would either have to evacuate (assuming they'd failed to do so earlier) or face living near such a cataclysmic presence (due to black holes immense gravitational pull and accompanying time dilation). Then there is always the possibly that a star might simply fade out of existence leaving only the dyson sphere itself as proof of its prior existence. So I suppose what I'm saying is that while tech of such a level capable of producing a dyson sphere might be useful but would almost certainly not be the worth the time, effort, cost, and expense such an IMMENSE project would entail.